Cameroon - Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

The value for Life expectancy at birth, total (years) in Cameroon was 59.63 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 59.63 in 2020 and a minimum value of 41.79 in 1960.

Definition: Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.

Source: (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision, or derived from male and female life expectancy at birth from sources such as: (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3)

See also:

Year Value
1960 41.79
1961 42.26
1962 42.72
1963 43.18
1964 43.64
1965 44.10
1966 44.56
1967 45.03
1968 45.51
1969 46.01
1970 46.52
1971 47.05
1972 47.59
1973 48.14
1974 48.68
1975 49.21
1976 49.72
1977 50.21
1978 50.68
1979 51.12
1980 51.54
1981 51.93
1982 52.31
1983 52.67
1984 53.00
1985 53.27
1986 53.48
1987 53.59
1988 53.61
1989 53.54
1990 53.36
1991 53.09
1992 52.74
1993 52.34
1994 51.94
1995 51.55
1996 51.24
1997 51.01
1998 50.89
1999 50.88
2000 50.99
2001 51.22
2002 51.54
2003 51.91
2004 52.32
2005 52.76
2006 53.22
2007 53.68
2008 54.15
2009 54.63
2010 55.10
2011 55.58
2012 56.07
2013 56.58
2014 57.08
2015 57.58
2016 58.06
2017 58.51
2018 58.92
2019 59.29
2020 59.63

Development Relevance: Mortality rates for different age groups (infants, children, and adults) and overall mortality indicators (life expectancy at birth or survival to a given age) are important indicators of health status in a country. Because data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. And they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries.

Limitations and Exceptions: Annual data series from United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects are interpolated data from 5-year period data. Therefore they may not reflect real events as much as observed data.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Life expectancy at birth used here is the average number of years a newborn is expected to live if mortality patterns at the time of its birth remain constant in the future. It reflects the overall mortality level of a population, and summarizes the mortality pattern that prevails across all age groups in a given year. It is calculated in a period life table which provides a snapshot of a population's mortality pattern at a given time. It therefore does not reflect the mortality pattern that a person actually experiences during his/her life, which can be calculated in a cohort life table. High mortality in young age groups significantly lowers the life expectancy at birth. But if a person survives his/her childhood of high mortality, he/she may live much longer. For example, in a population with a life expectancy at birth of 50, there may be few people dying at age 50. The life expectancy at birth may be low due to the high childhood mortality so that once a person survives his/her childhood, he/she may live much longer than 50 years.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Mortality